mizbeach

Mizbeach is a Hebrew word (מִּזְבֵּחַ) meaning “altar.” It derives from a root associated with slaughter and sacrifice, reflecting its primary function as a site where offerings were brought to God. In biblical and rabbinic Hebrew, mizbeach generally denotes an elevated platform or structure used for sacrifices.

In the Hebrew Bible, the mizbeach most prominently refers to the altar of burnt offerings, located in the courtyard of the Tabernacle and later in the Temple in Jerusalem. This altar was described as being made of acacia wood overlaid with bronze, five cubits long and five cubits wide, and three cubits high, with horns on its four corners. On it, animal and grain offerings were burned as sacrifices to God. In or near the Holy Place stood a separate, smaller altar called the mizbeach ha-ketoret, the altar of incense, used for daily incensing in ritual worship. The term is also associated with altars mentioned in biblical narratives, including those built by patriarchs such as Abraham and Jacob as places of worship and vows.

After the destruction of the Second Temple, no mizbeach for animal sacrifices has been used in customary Jewish practice. Rabbinic literature discusses sacrifices and the Temple in a prospective, messianic context, and the term remains a symbol in discussions of a future Temple. In biblical and later Jewish thought, mizbeach thus signifies both a concrete cultic structure and a broader ideal of devoted worship centered on the offering of sacrifices.

Patriarchal and biblical references present mizbeach as a locus of encounter with God, with early altars serving as precursors to the later, centralized altar in the Jerusalem Temple.